Time (August 23)
It is shocking “that more than 65% of Japanese medical doctors who responded to a survey said reducing the entrance exam scores for women is unavoidable, since the extreme working hours make it impossible for female doctors to work full time while taking care of their children. Japanese society still sees household chores and childcare as the main responsibility of women, whether or not they are in paid employment.”
Tags: Children, Doctors, Employment, Exam, Full-time, Household, Japan, Scores, Survey, Women, Working hours
Wall Street Journal (May 17)
“American women are having children at the lowest rate on record, with the number of babies born in the U.S. last year dropping to a 30-year low…. The figures suggest that a number of women who put off having babies after the 2007-09 recession are forgoing them altogether.” This could spell trouble as America’s aging population is already “creating a funding imbalance that strains the social safety net that supports the elderly.”
Tags: Aging, Babies, Children, Elderly, Funding, Population, Recession, Safety net, U.S., Women
The Atlantic (April 25)
“More and more Americans are first sharing a home, then having children. Marriage comes later, if at all.” According to the Pew Research Center “35 percent of all unmarried parents are now living together, up from 20 percent of unmarried parents in 1997” and less than 1 percent in 1968. Aside from changing social norms, much of the trend appears to be linked to economic reasons and financial instability. “In response to an unintended pregnancy, a couple is three times more likely to move in together than get married.”
Tags: Children, Economic, Financial instability, Marriage, Parents, Pew, Social norms, U.S., Unmarried
LA Times (June 20)
“Each day three or four children under age 17 die and an additional 16 are hospitalized from a single cause: gunfire. In fact… gun violence is the third leading cause of death for American kids between ages 1 and 17, and the second leading cause of injury-related deaths after motor vehicle accidents.” It is “the nation’s shame” that “we know it’s a problem…. We know steps can be taken to address it. But we don’t take them.”
Tags: Accidents, Children, Death, Gun violence, Gunfire, Hospitalized, Shame, U.S.
Financial Times (January 14)
“Decades of anaemic wage increases, lower job security and lacklustre consumption” have undermined a generation of Japanese who are now coming to age. Dismal economic factors have “stripped away” their incentives “to leave home, buy cars, marry, have children, take risks and generally grow up.”
Tags: Anaemic, Cars, Children, Consumption, Dismal, Incentives, Japan, Job security, Marriage, Risks, Wages
Washington Post (October 19)
“Of all the sad statistics associated with U.S. gun violence, none is more pitiful than the single digits that represent the ages of little children who unintentionally shoot themselves or others after getting hold of a gun.” On average a child shoots someone (or himself) unintentionally once a week. “No count can capture the lasting emotional damage of these shootings, to those who shoot as well as, if they survive, those who are shot.”
Tags: Children, Emotional damage, Gun violence, Sad, Shootings, Statistics, U.S.
New York Times (October 15)
“India is a vigorous democracy that has sent an orbiter to Mars. Yet its children are more likely to starve than children in far poorer nations in Africa. In a remarkable failure of democracy, India is the epicenter of global malnutrition: 39 percent of Indian children are stunted from poor nutrition.”
Institutional Investor (July 20)
With social security on track to run dry in the U.S. by 2033, members of Generation X (born from 1965-1981) are taking an overwhelmingly self-reliant view toward retirement: 65% don’t expect any inheritance, pension or social security payments. “Gen Xers’ woes are increasingly shared by Millennials as they age. Like Millennials, Gen Xers tended to marry later and delay having children. Perhaps Gen Xers’ experiences with retirement planning—dominated by the sense that it is an insurmountable task—will serve as a proxy for how the younger and larger Millennial generation will fare.”
Tags: Children, Generation X, Inheritance, Marry, Millennials, Pension, Retirement, Social security, U.S.
The Telegraph (October 16)
“Instead of changing a structure of employment that clearly does not work for women, Apple and Facebook are offering employees the chance to freeze their eggs and have children later.” Egg freezing and storage is the latest Silicon Valley perk designed “to attract more female employees” and “tackle the Gender Pay Gap.” But to some, this sounds surreal. “Women freeze the source of life itself? That’s not a perk, it’s an outrage.”
Tags: Apple, Children, Eggs, Employment, Facebook, Freezing, Gender, Outrage, Pay gap, Perk, Silicon Valley, Women
The Economist (June 21)
“Since time immemorial, Chinese children have been expected to take care of their aged parents—but rising incomes and shifting norms are changing things.” Retirement homes, some quite stylish, may prove the wave of the future in China.
Tags: Children, China, Elderly, Future, Incomes, Norms, Parents, Retirement, Retirement homes
